The fourteenth EMBO Conference on the Molecular and Developmental Biology of Drosophila took place in Kolymbari, Crete, between 20 and 26 June 2004, and was organized by U. Banerjee, A. Bejsovec, S. Bray, C. Delidakis, A. Ephrussi, A. Giangrande, D. Ish‐Horowicz, T. Kaufman, R. Lehmann, M. Leptin, S. Parkhurst, N. Perrimon, R. Saint, B. Shilo and J.‐P. Vincent. ![][1] We dedicate this report to the memory of Edward B. Lewis (1918–2004). His work on the formation of the Drosophila body plan is a keystone of modern developmental biology and earned him a Nobel Prize in 1995. He was a frequent and much‐valued participant in the ‘Crete meeting’, where his vast knowledge of fly genetics and his lively personality illuminated many discussions. He will be sorely missed. This year, in the warm sunshine of Crete, more than 100 investigators gathered to probe some of the greatest mysteries of animal development. Two main trends became clear: first, a focus on cell biology is now answering questions of long‐standing interest in developmental biology; and second, the creative application of new imaging and computational techniques is allowing ever‐more challenging problems to be approached. ### Localization and integration of information A central puzzle in development is the mechanism by which molecules achieve their precise subcellular localizations to promote local events in the cell. For example, the asymmetric localization of messenger RNAs (mRNAs), such as bicoid and oskar ( osk ) in the fly oocyte determines the future anteroposterior axis of the embryo. C. Rabouille (Utrecht, the Netherlands) has used immunoelectron microscopy to investigate the subcellular localization of these molecules at the ultrastructural level. In collaborations with I. Davis (Edinburgh, UK) and A. Ephrussi (Heidelberg, Germany), she has pioneered the use of RNA in situ hybridization on frozen sections to show that the localization of RNAs, including bicoid and osk , influences the intracellular distribution … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif